Sketching and Note-Taking on Android with Quill

Productivity Sauce

Jan 24, 2013 GMT

Dmitri Popov

Want to use your Android tablet as a sketchbook and a tool for taking handwritten notes? Then you need Quill. This open source app (source code is available on the project's Google Code page) offers several essential tools for drawing and scribbling notes, including a pencil and a fountain pen. The latter tool is pressure sensitive (i.e., more pressure results in a thicker line), but this feature works only on tablets with an active pen such as HTC Flyer and Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet. You can specify thickness and color for both pen and pencil.

In addition to the Undo and Redo commands, Quill features the Erase tool for more precise erasing operations. In the Menu | Page section, you can adjust page settings such as aspect ratio and paper type. Quill supports several popular paper types, including several ruled paper variants, quad paper, Cornell notes, and Daily Planner. The app also allows you to export notebooks or individual pages in the PDF and PNG formats. In addition to that, Quill includes a syncing feature which you can use to sync notebooks between several devices. And you can back up notebooks by exporting them as Quill backup archives. You can then open the .quill archives on a regular machine using the Quill Desktop application. It's written in Python and requires no installation. Fetch the latest version of the application, unpack the downloaded archive, and run the python ./quill command in the terminal. Finally, Evernote users will appreciate Quill's ability to upload notes directly to Evernote.